Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 8 · column 2 of 6 · from the scan, no model involved
never have succeeded in uniting il the Colonies had not been willing to abolish restrictions on interstate commerce and to have a uniform currency.
The type of cooperation which Europe needs also is illustrated by the way the REA electrification program has been developed to raise the standard of farm life and to abolish the differential between city and rural living. Essentially the REA is a plan to help the farmers to help themselves. That is what even the poorest European nations must be encouraged to do, instead of taking more - handouts.
This comparison occurred to me last week when I had the privilege of attending a meeting of representatives of all the Virginia REA Cooperatives in Washington. As one who has supported that program since it started, I was pleased to hear1 the Virginia Co-ops all are current with their loan obligations and many have substantial surpluses. It also is gratifying to know that 92.5 percent of Virginia farms have been electrified and the remainder may obtain similiar service under the REA policy of area coverage.
The meaning of REA was made most vivid for me, however, by a conversation I had with a fifteen yeac old girl in the office of the home demonstration agent at Clintwood. When I met this girl, Miss Jolene Yates, on a recent trip through Southwest Virginia, I told her I was scheduled to speak at a REA meeting and asked her what the program meant to her. She promptly replied that electricity was one of her Four H Club projects and told me how electricity had improved her school building and her home and how her father used it in his workshop and for grinding grain. She referred to the time and money saved by electrical saws and other tools and the value of an electrified fence around their cow pasture. “Electricity," Miss Yates assured me, “is the farmer’s best friend.”
What isn’t interesting on first reading is seldom any more so on second reading.
83.7%